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Can’t get you out of my mind: empathy, distress, and recurring thoughts about a person in need

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Abstract

Research suggests that empathic concern and distress give rise to different patterns of helping behavior. It has been proposed that this difference is caused by the effects of these emotions on recurrent thoughts about the person in need. However, no research has directly investigated this potential explanation. To remedy this, we tested the hypotheses that distress, but not empathic concern, is associated with both anticipated recurring thoughts (Study 1) and experienced recurring thoughts (Study 2) about a victim. We also tested the hypothesis that distress is associated with thoughts about the victim, whereas empathic concern is associated with thoughts about the victim’s situation (Study 3), which is potentially a consequence of the motives associated with each emotion. Lastly, we assessed the causal relations between distress, empathic concern, and recurrent thoughts (Study 4). Overall, results demonstrate a distinctive, and important, pattern of associations among empathic concern, distress, and different forms of recurrent thoughts about the emotion-eliciting stimulus.

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Notes

  1. In order to ensure that empathy and personal distress were two different factors, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the samples from the four studies (n = 233). AMOS software was used to conduct the CFA using a Weighted Least Squares Minimum Value (WLSMV) procedure, as this seems to be the most appropriate for polychoric correlations (Muthén and Muthén 1998-2012). We determined the fit of the model based on the goodness-of-fit indices (GOF). The GOF indices used in this study were: (a) The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA); (b) the comparative fit index (CFI); and (c) the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI). RMSEA is considered acceptable at values lower than 0.06 (Hu and Bentler 1999). CFI and TLI are considered to give evidence of acceptable fit at values over a .90 threshold (Bentler and Bonett 1980), and excellent fit at .95 (Hu and Bentler 1999). Results showed an acceptable fit, with an RMSEA of 0.079 (p (RMSEA < 0.06) > .05), CFI = .967, and TLI = .943).

    figure a

    We also tested the fit of a single factor model. This model did not have an acceptable fit (RMSEA = 0.169; CFI = .836; and TLI = .779), and was significantly worse than the 2-factor solution (Δχ2 = 90.392, p value < .00005). Thus, empathic concern and distress, as measured by the ERQ in the present research, are two separate constructs.

  2. There were no gender differences on key dependent variables in any of the four studies (Study 1, ts < .14, ps > .88; Study 2, ts < .49, ps > .62; Study 3, ts < 1.22, ps > .23; Study 4, ts < 1.32, ps > .19), so gender is not included in the reported analyses.

  3. This pattern of results for empathic concern and distress is common for victim scenarios in which the suffering is not particularly graphic or shocking (for a review, see Batson 2011). The same pattern was found in Study 2 [empathic concern M = 3.99, SD = 1.27; distress M = 3.48, SD = 1.42, t (59) = 3.82, p < .001] and in Study 3 [empathic concern M = 4.30, SD = 1.31; distress M = 3.42, SD = 1.48, t (43) = 5.45, p < .001]. In need situations involving graphic or disturbing content (e.g., blood, extreme pain), the distress tends to be stronger than empathic concern (see Hoffman, 2001, for a discussion of empathic over-arousal).

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Funding

This project was funded by the grant PSI2014-53321-P, in which Luis Oceja is co-investigator.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas at Tyler, 3900 University Blvd, Tyler, TX, 75799, USA

    Eric L. Stocks

  2. Plymouth University, Drake Circus, Plymouth Devon, PL48AA, UK

    Belén López-Pérez

  3. Facultad de Psicologia, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, C/Pavlov 6, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Luis V. Oceja

Authors
  1. Eric L. Stocks
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  2. Belén López-Pérez
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  3. Luis V. Oceja
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Correspondence to Eric L. Stocks.

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Conflict of interest

Eric Stocks declares that he has no conflict of interest. Belen Lopez-Perez declares that she has no conflict of interest. Luis Oceja declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Stocks, E.L., López-Pérez, B. & Oceja, L.V. Can’t get you out of my mind: empathy, distress, and recurring thoughts about a person in need. Motiv Emot 41, 84–95 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-016-9587-1

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